Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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Sha-pherdstown was secured from the owners, Messrs. Brookes, ot' Boston. and Shep- herd College, a classical and scientific school was organized in 1872 u11der an incor- porated hoard of trustees, in connection with which the legislature soon after estah- lished a Branch State Normal School. Professor Blcllurran was at the head of this institution for ten years and always with just pride regarded it as the hest work of his life. He was indefatigahle in his ettorts for its success, expending his own private means in the repair and improvement. of the huildings and the purchase of furniture and apparatus, while the legislature doleel out a niggardly support and some years failed to make any appropriation at all. 4 ine year the students numbered one hundred and forty-live. The pupils who went out from his instruction at this time formed the teaching force for many years in the schools of the town and county. Besides the sixty-five teachers that he trained duringthese tenyears others of his pupils have entered all the departments of life as ministers, lawyers, legislators, physi- cians. merchants. farmers and queens of the home. His pupils of this period love him with a passionate devotion which he heartily reciprocated. The alumni associa- tion of Shepherds College hold an animal meeting at which they never fail to recount. the achievements of their former teacher and to sing hispraises. lfrom hisdeath- hed he sent these old pupils of his the message that he loved them better than any- thing else in the world, that if he was permitted to continue the work of teaching in heaven, he would like to gather around him his old pupils and with them pursue the work of education, and he begged that when he was gone, they would remember their old teacher. He laid the foundations of Shepherd College State Normal School deep and strong and gave it the character and standing that has enabled it to accomplish the heneficent work it has ever since been doing for education in Jefferson county and the eastern part of the State. Mr. Blc-Nlurran was president of the cou11ty board of education for many years and for tive years he was a member of the NVQ-st Virginia State Board of Examiners and Conductor of Teachers' Institutes. He knew all the schools and teachers in the county and was deeply interested in the work of education throughout the whole State. When the XVar between the States was threatening in the summer of 1860, Mr. Mcllurran was teaching in Alabama. The young men of the community i11 which he lived formed a young volunteer company and offered him the captaincy. This he declined, however, and returned to his native State. He came to Christiansburg and there after editing in partnership with Capt. .lohn C. Wade. the Sim' of llzc West, a weekly paper, for seven or eight months, when Virginia seceded, he promptly enlisted on April IT, 1861, as a private in Company G, Capt. R. C. Trigg, which was assigned To tl1e 4th Regiment, Virginia Infantry, commanded by Col. James I . Preston. This regiment belonged to the lfirst Brigade, afterwards known as the famous Stonewall Brigade. lle continued in active service through the whole war with the exception of six months that were spent in prison at lfort llelaware after he was captured at 22

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foes. And at last he fell asleep with the faces of his chieftains of the Lost Cause, Jefferson Davis. Lee and Jackson, looking down upon him from the walls of his quiet bedroom-an unreconstructed rebel to the end. ln 1882 tired with the erratic support given Shepherd College by the State Mr. Mc-Klurran retired from the work of education and undertook the drug business in which he continued for nearly twenty years, not stopped even by failing health dur- ing the last year until suddenly arrested hy the hand of death. still in harness and hard at work. He studied Materia Medica. Botany, Physiology, Anatomy and Sur- gery for several years but was provideutially hindered from completing his course in medicine. Mr. BIcMurran was of striking personal appearance. He had a commanding form, was more than six feet tall and of a martial hearing. ln later life he had a smooth bald head and an immaculate white beard, with classic features. pure white skin. clear.kind lilue eyes. He was intellectual. refined, gentle and firm, attractive to women and children as well as to men. His speaking portrait hangs on the walls of the Shepherd College Library. a perpetual benetliction. He was never married and the happiness that most 111011 find in wife and children he found in lavishing kind attentions upon his devoted sister in the sacred circle of their home and in making himself useful to the whole community. He was never so happy as when doing some kindness. By some he was called the Encyclopedia. so comprehensive and varied was the information he held and he dispensed it as freely as a fountain to all. His brother. Mr. James Mc-Nlurran, of Bristol, Tenn.. writes: 'Ll do know this of my own knowledge that there are a number of instances in which he gave gratuitous instruction to poor hut worthy young men, who today are holding positions of honor and trust who credit. him with their advancement in life and the infiuence exercised over them in moulding their characters for good and usefulness. Again he writes: L' He endured the privations aml hardships of army life without llNll'lllllI'illg and it was always his pleasure to add a word of cheer aml encouragement to those who were clespondentf' How much healing and help he freely dispensed to the sick and needy even he himself did not know, for he was not one to let his left hand know what his right hand was doing. For fifty-four years he was a niemher of the Presbyterian Church. He was hon- ored with various offiees at different times. As member of the church. as teacher in the Sunday-school and sulrerintemlent for twenty-five years. as deacon and treas- urer of the church. as ruling elder for twenty-nine years and clerk of the session, he did what he believed to he his duty and did it well. Deeply interested in the wel- fare of the church. wise in council for her good, conscientious and upright in charac- ter, hlameless in conduct, kind and considerate in disposition. he was looked up to hy all. old and young alike. with reverence and love as a true ruler in God's house. A multitude of men and women and little children are ready to rise up and call him hlessed. And through these lives that he has influenced and blessed 'the being 24-